SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - More screenshots, mods, etc

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- Sub/Naval & General Games Discussion (https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/forumdisplay.php?f=177)

- - More screenshots, mods, etc (https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=157404)

Great to see that the devs have left this game so wide open for modders (may be its saving grace). Hopefully the ai ships physics and the sea state can also be altered to give larger waves etc? Particularly as the latest video (surface combat) made everything look very much "on rails".

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sonarman (Post 1201331)

The AI ships physics can be changed the same way as for PT-boats although the allowed variation in parameter values may not be enough for sufficient change for large AI ships.

It is relatively easy to adjust the waves but to make them nicer takes some work.

Here is a results of changes in some parameters to make quick and dirty adjustments and larger waves.

http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/8...gerwaves01.jpg

http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/107...gerwaves02.jpg

http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/237...gerwaves03.jpg

However, PT-boats do not take well at all those waves.

For stormy weather, more foam/white caps are needed. Not clear whether it is possible to get that.

Thanks a lot for that Sergbuto :up:, there does seem to be quite a lot of variables at play in terms of seastate & boat physics it will be interesting to see what happens to this sim in the future once you guys really sink your modding teeth in to it. The forthcoming addon looks promising too with the addition of minefields and torpedo bombers, I hope the ball keeps rolling on this one for a while and we get further expansions including the Pacific which would certainly help sales stateside.

I do find it strange that they didn't add more coastline into the game, it really only shows up halfway through the fourth campaign, and even my old system manages it quite well, so I don't think it was a performance issue. Perhaps they just didn't see the importance of land in a sea game.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sonarman (Post 1201805)

I do find it strange that they didn't add more coastline into the game, it really only shows up halfway through the fourth campaign, and even my old system manages it quite well, so I don't think it was a performance issue. Perhaps they just didn't see the importance of land in a sea game.

For every mission, the playing map is only around 25 km^2. If the player sails outside the map, the mission is over. When the land is put on the map, this reduces the playable space even further. I guess that is why the devs do not use much land. There are only two small naval bases/ports depicted in the game for the Barents sea.

I have taken a closer look at the 3D model format the game uses (.CW files). I've positively identified the mesh verticies and corresponding to them texture coordinates and faces. With some more efforts the format can be fully decoded.

Here is a 3D model decoded and extracted from the Box.cw file in GameData\GROUPS\ directory. The original 3D file seemed to be in .X format before coding by devs.

http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/2350/boxptboats.jpg

From playing with scripts of mission files, it seems it is relatevily easy to randomize many aspects of the game, such as weather, units, unit routes, etc.

Hi, can you post links to these mods?thx.:)

The mods and tweaks were done out of curiousity and as tests on moddability of the game. They were not meant for download. None of them is in finished form.

Most of the things you should be able to do yourself by non-complex editing of text files. You'll probably need some pointers though but only in the beginning.

Can you give us some pointers? for playable u-boot

Well, the easiest way to do that is to use a trick I have described in the other thread

Quote:

Originally Posted by sergbuto (Post 1209587)

Say, you would like to do that for MClass. In the def.xml file in the NAVALS\MClass folder, you need to replace text line

<object_type>Trawler</object_type>

with

<object_type>TorpedoBoat</object_type>

This will provide access to AA gun stations with help of keys 1 or 2. The rangefinder view (key 4) will be replaced with bridge/binocle views. However, since the rangefinder view location is fairly high up (for all the ships), the bridge/binocle view will be substancially above the deck, sort of an observation point on the mast. The location of the bridge/binocle view can be adjusted only by hex-editing of the files.

While the gun station (first person) views will be fine for MClass, it may not be true for other ships. F.e. after using the same trick the def.xml file for Tribal, you will end up on the deck level (at gun's support) after switching to gun stations. That is because only guns used on PT-boats have a good definition of the shooter/first person view and when those guns are used on other ships, the views are okay.

Just do that with def.html in the NAVALS\U995 folder.

If I remember correctly, you would need to make some changes in the corresponding mission file as well. Say, replace the line

GTBoat1 = NavalObject ( 's26', RelationType.Friend, ObjectType.TorpedoBoat )

with

GTBoat1 = Submarine ( 'U995', RelationType.Friend, ObjectType.TorpedoBoat )

On the other hand, the proper way to do that is to modify script files. F.e. I have made changes in the SCRIPTS\common\input.py which allow for an access to the AA guns on any type of ships and in this case no modifications of def.html are any longer required.

Thank you sergbuto:salute:

Am I the only one lusting for playable Admiral Hipper? :arrgh!:

The mission maps in PT boats are too small for proper WW2-cruiser battles. On the other hand, this game engine shows good fit for the WW1 naval simulator. If Devs decide to release a 3D-model importer (under discussion at the moment), the WW1 stuff may be available some day.